“Never since the beginning of systematic weather recording has there probably been a hot day in Germany as early in the year as on Saturday”, the German weather agency said. And Sunday (race day) wasn’t any better with the temperature creeping up to 30°C (in the shade).

Just. My. Bloody. Luck.

Especially as, as I type this up a month later (and publish it two months later..), it has barely crept above 15°C to 20°C since! Ah well.

As crazy as it seems, through injuries, covid and lack of time/motivation, it had actually been 5 years since I’d last done a marathon. I hadn’t necessarily really planned on doing one this Spring and had only really signed up to this one as part of a “preparation” cycle ahead of the Olympics “Open for all” marathon in August.

As it had been so long, I felt that, if I started doing long runs in the French summer heat after so long without doing big efforts, I’d be pooped.

I was somewhat prepared for this one, but also totally unprepared compared to old approaches. I never peaked above 60km/week (and that was only twice – “proper” training should really be 80+ for like 5 or 6 weeks), though I did at least tick off my some 30k 32k and 35k runs which was good training. On the downside (beyond the general lack of training), I’d lost a week to illness three weeks out and lost a week of training to a work trip to Africa. I also felt a little “throaty” that week (due to some bug/virus gradually infesting my body), though nothing out of the ordinary with a toddler.

So, race day. Leaving the hotel was very low key, which is how I wanted it – I hadn’t told any friends I was running it as I wanted zero pressure. Pippa and Maëlie were snoring away as I snuck out of the hotel, pockets full of energy gels. I had no bag to drop off. The streets were quite quiet so there was no huge excitement which was perfect.

By the time we got to the expo centre on the outskirts of the town, from where the race was starting, it wasn’t hot (this was still like 8am in early April) but it was warming up rapidly. I still had 90 minutes until the race started and was a little at a loss as to what to do with my free time so just sat on the floor for a bit, in the shade. Billy no friends.

The sun gradually crept out from behind the clouds and, as it hit, I thought bugger. This was, as expected, going to be a hot day. Nothing I can do now about it anyway. I could, however, go through my usual voiding stomach cycle.

Amusingly (and somewhat surprisingly), there was giant queue for the men’s toilet but none for the women’s which had quite a few women giggling at the role reversal when they realised that they didn’t need to queue.

After my 6^th poo of the day, I was good to go to the starting pen.

Annoyingly, my Bluetooth headphones refused to connect at that point. Modern technology is great at times, but the old crappy wired headphones which came free with phones always bloody worked. I only had 3 minutes to go but rebooted my phone to see if that helped. Then the bloody thing started updating apps! Nooo!

Thankfully, my German high school lessons weren’t good enough for me to understand most of the drivel the speaker was saying, I was able to understand funf und treizig which hinted that the race would start 5 minutes late.

And we were off (without music, bloody earphones never started up again: I’d only have my deepest thoughts to entertain me). I was very much in the mass but that suited me: this was a training run, not a real race.

This said, in race “conditions” (i.e. everyone’s buzzing with excitement), it’s surprisingly hard to set off ‘properly slowly’ (though it became much easier to be slow later one…), especially as the start’s slightly downhill.

The first few kilometres were downhill, and I was applying the brakes to keep to a 4’20/km pace or so. I had two bottles with me just to be safe: in hindsight, it was totally unnecessary, but it was mostly to reassure me in terms of running in heat. 

Despite the fun and games of running in a sauna (a.k.a. “Nigeria”), I’m as suited to running in hot weather as a fish is to flying. Flying fish do exist, but mostly … don’t. The same applies to my “running well in hot weather days”.

Overall, this is a very flat course (and good for a PB if it’s good weather conditions). Within about 5 pretty pleasant kilometres, we reached Dietenbach Park, where Pippa ran her Parkrun a day earlier. It’s a lovely park and was made even lovelier thanks to the first water station. 

It was however probably the quietest part of run and, still with no music, it was just me, myself and I in my head at that point. This spot aside, this was one of my favourite races in terms of locals coming out: there was a great atmosphere along the way and, to be honest, the town itself was surprisingly nice. 

The glorious weather of course helped. As did the blossoming pink trees. But the local architecture is nice. There were lots of young families. And it very child friendly, with so many playparks. (I guess this insight may not have made the cut in the early days of this website!)

Anyway, back to the run. By the time I had left park, my pace had dropped to 4’40 or so pace which was already worryingly…a little slow. It would be fair to find that pace hard at the end of the marathon but after 7km, nope. But my legs were just knackered already, so I was clearly just under the weather (my “throaty throat” turned into a proper cold the next day), under trained and over hot. 

Ah well. The race took us eastwards towards the more residential townhouse part of town. I sped up a little bit each time went past the music. It really does have an impact, at least to me, to be able to run with music. Now I know that’s not how the super elites do it, but I think we’ve established I’m not one of them. And I’m not that fussed about being left to my own thoughts and gremlins for a few hours. GIVE ME A SCREEN. GIVE ME A DISTRACTION. 

While it was hardly Mount Everest, I only realised afterwards looking at Strava that we were climbing the full time between 5 and 15km. OK, only 60m. But let’s blame that too.

Anyway, by then, I was really doubting whether I wanted to run the whole thing. On the plus side, it would be a mental boost ahead of the Olympics marathon (non-elite option…) in August. On the downside, I was hot and in no real mood for logging an exceptionally slow long run. For context, I ended up running slower in this half than on my weekend long runs, where I’m essentially jogging, over the same distance. 

Though there was a 5km gap with no water at the start (on the map, it was meant to be 7km so I was running with two water bottles: unnecessary but purely mental need), they otherwise had water every 2.5km or so which was needed. Most followed a water // energy drink // water distribution pattern, so I tended to grab water to drink at the first table then water to pour over my head at the last.

Around the 17km, they added a very German twist: water // energy drink // ….. beer. OK, non-alcoholic, but BEER?! Was passiert?

I saw Pippa and Maëlie just after this 17km mark which gave me a nice boost, to the point where, for a few kilometres, I was thinking _well, maybe I WILL run the whole thing. In the shade, it was alright. When you hit the sun…. it actually really quite warm!! 

For a few kilometres, I was umming and erring. Then, around the 20.5km mark, about 100 or so metres in front of me, I saw one runner keel over. By the time, I had got there, a few people had already put him in recovery position and his glassy stare (dead-ish, at least until resuscitated) was enough for me to think “nope, not worth it in this heat“. As a few other runners had stopped, I though the most useful thing I could do was try to find a first aider further up the route to warn them, but it seemed to be an empty patch. Eventually, after a good 400m, I got to practice my best ENTSCHULDIGUNG though they had already been warned by someone else so hopefully the guy was OK in the end…

And with that last action, when I had to pick between going straight for another 21km lap or right to stop (and cheekily get a half marathon medal), right it was. 

On the downside, I don’t even think this was Type 2 fun. It wasn’t a huge amount of fun and I don’t think I’ll look back fondly on it. Though the organisation was great, the super was brilliant and the town beautiful. Just unlucky with the weather. 

On the plus side, at least I know just how far I am in terms of fitness. 

And the good news is that Paris is notoriously cold in August. Ugh. 

Time: 1h40’34

Scenery

Speed

Sun